five reasons
by Z-clam
Summary: It is logical that they will never kiss, and one should always listen to logic. GinnyTonks.


**Notes:** Ginny/Tonks (FEMMESLASH WARNING HERE). Written for fanfic100 and the prompt "why?". Mentions of all canon Ginny pairings and Remus/Sirius, which is my OTP so it's hard to leave it out of anything. OotP-compliant; not HBP-compliant, necessarily, but it takes place during OotP anyway. J. K. Rowling's, not mine.

* * *

five reasons ginny weasley will never kiss nymphadora tonks

_i_. because tonks is female. and ginny likes guys. she's fancied harry potter for five and a half years, for god's sake. although it's not so bad now that she's dating dean. and before that, she was dating michael. see? three guys has to be more than a fluke. even ginny knows that much.

(what ginny sometimes forgets is that liking guys doesn't mean you can't like girls, too.)

_ii._ because tonks is straight. she told ginny this summer about her first boyfriend and her first kiss. it was the last thing ginny wanted to hear, but she pretended to be excited and told her own stories about michael (this was before they broke up). they made a girl's night of it – painting their nails (well, tonks painted ginny's nails and just thought hers purple), listening to the weird sisters and gossiping about boys. boys, not girls, because tonks is straight, so ginny should stop thinking this way. it's never going to happen, so it's pointless to waste her time speculating.

(but that doesn't stop her from wondering what it would feel like to kiss tonks someday.)

_iii._ because tonks is so much older. not that that really matters to ginny. It might matter to tonks, though, considering ginny just turned fifteen last summer and tonks is about eight years her senior. there are muggle laws against things like that, ginny knows, but she feels mature for her age, at least in comparison to the other girls in her year. they're mostly annoyingly ditzy, so she hangs out more with the boys. it's what she's used to. in any case, age shouldn't matter. but it probably does, anyway.

(she forgets that tonks can be amazingly immature herself, that she never feels funny about hanging out with her just like any other friend.)

_iv._ because tonks is in the order and can't tell her anything about it. ginny knows how weak that one sounds, but a relationship can't be built on secrets and lies. not that a kiss translates into a relationship, but in theory, it could lead to more, and, well, she could never be with someone who can't be fully honest with her. that sort of thing only leads to unnecessary suspicion. just look at professor lupin and sirius black – suspecting each other when the whole time, peter pettigrew was the traitor. ginny doesn't ever want that to happen to her.

(of course, a kiss could just be a kiss. and who's to say that the second war will be nearly as bad as the first?)

_v._ because ginny's too scared. her brothers would laugh if they heard that one. everyone knows that ginny weasley isn't scared of anything. what they don't know is that there's one thing that terrifies her more than she can express. as long as she doesn't do anything about them, she can keep her feelings locked up and sacred, and smile to herself whenever she gets to see tonks. but the minute she lets them out, she's opening herself up, and ginny hates being vulnerable.

(a little niggling voice at the back of her brain keeps saying, _if you never take the chance…_ but over time, she's gotten good at ignoring it.)

five reasons nymphadora tonks will never kiss ginny weasley

_i._ "so, are you dating anyone?" tonks asks, trying not to betray any emotion.

"well, kind of," ginny replies, pursing her lips as she struggles with an almost-empty bottle of doxycide, "i mean, i've been seeing him for about two and a half months now."

tonks forces a smile. "what's his name?"

"michael," ginny replies, distracted. "can you help me with this?"

"sure." tonks sighs and feigns nonchalance, moving closer to see what ginny's doing. there is a doxy attacking her hair, which shrieks at tonks shrilly.

"begone, foul beast!" she says, squirting at it, and the doxy drops dead. ginny giggles.

_ii. _girl's night with ginny: it is a mess of nail polish, giggling, and mischievous glints in their eyes.

and it is all in fun until ginny asks about her first kiss.

she pretends to have to think about it. "hmm… well, it was a long time ago, you know… ah, yes, i remember."

ginny raises her eyebrows.

"your brother," tonks says. "charlie was my first kiss."

at that, ginny snorts. "you're kidding."

"no. but it never went anywhere."

what she doesn't add is the reason it didn't: she realized, even then, that something was wrong, that she wasn't supposed to be kissing boys. she doesn't say and ginny doesn't ask.

"what about yours?" she says instead, and ginny giggles, the topic, thankfully, averted.

_iii._ "when's your birthday?"

they are sitting in ginny and hermione's room in grimmauld place while hermione is out with harry and ron.

"august 11," ginny says. "when's yours?"

"october 9," tonks replies. "i'm turning twenty-three soon."

"I just turned fifteen," ginny says, and tonks feels very old all of a sudden.

"is it weird that we get along so well, then?" she muses. ginny smiles. "don't be ridiculous. i'm used to being the youngest."

tonks feels a bit funny about it, anyway.

_iv._ "hey," ginny says. "what have you been up to lately?"

"i really can't say," tonks says absently. "order business."

"right," ginny sighs.

tonks feels like a bitch for having to hide things from her friends, but there's nothing she can do about it, really. "it's not that i don't trust you –" she starts.

ginny cuts her off. "don't. i know."

_v._ it wouldn't make sense, would it?

tonks mulls it over for hours, days, weeks.

no, it wouldn't, she decides.

but when ginny comes home for christmas, she kisses her anyway.


End file.
